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Staying with volleyball for the second week in a row, Forces Sport speak to Nikki Mead, the Army women’s head coach. Nikki lives and breathes the sport and whilst she is clearly passionate about the game, her roles as a coach and a manager mean she has to deal with the day-to-day admin associated with running a successful team, at any level. In this conversation, she discusses the highs and lows of Army volleyball…including their dominance at inter services and in the crown services tournament, but also the ongoing frustrations of keeping a minority sport going, especially after the difficulties of a global pandemic.  

The Army men won the crown services volleyball tournament for the first time this year. The annual tournament between all three armed forces, plus the GB police, prison and fire services, was played in May, and the Army men’s head coach Alex Menya believes their victory is one of their biggest achievements to date. Originally from Uganda, Alex talks to Forces Sport about growing up with the game, honing his coaching skills from a very young age and how he endeavours to get the best out of his players every time they step on court.   

The UK Armed Forces men’s football team will be looking to make history again this week by trying to win the Kentish Cup for the fifth time in a row. It’s been almost three years since their stunning victory in the Netherlands at the end of 2019 and while the team and back-room staff have changed, the winning ethos and positive attitude remains the same. Three of the team’s senior payers spoke to Forces Sport about what it means to play international football in Europe’s oldest cup competition.       

For the first time ever, Lord’s have invited a military women’s team to play on the main pitch at the home of cricket. The UK Armed Forces ladies will take on an MCC XI when the Inter Services T20 returns to the ground this week. The game will be sandwiched between the two remaining IST20 men’s fixtures and the UKAF team manager Ros Brown, plus a couple of standout armed forces players – Lou Worsfold and Mel Vaggers - spoke to Forces Sport about the privilege and significance of this event. 

Adam Fisher may not even the best cricketer in his family, but he’s been a stalwart for his club, the Royal Air Force and the UK Armed Forces. The pilot, now training to be a flying instructor at RAF Cranwell, talks to Forces Sport about his love of all team sports and how that drove him to join up, plus his famous brother’s England debut in the West Indies earlier this year.    

Army Netball not only have a men’s team – one of their players has just been selected to play for England. Dave Sunaki has only been playing for eight months but he has been guided and supported by Army Netball’s team manager Laura Ellis. Her vision in the sport has created many pathways and opportunities for all her payers - women, men and the mixed team alike. She talks to Forces Sport about her drive, her ambitions and her genuine passion for Netball and everyone involved in it.      

RAF musician Shona Brownlee was coming to the end of basic training when she got injured – what seemed innocuous at first, turned in to years of surgery and eventually the decision to amputate her right leg below the knee. She was introduced to skiing through the Battle Back programme and she’s gone on to represent GB at the recent Paralympics games in Beijing. Still serving, Shona was named RAF Sportswoman of the Year in 2021, but away from her sporting prowess, she tells Forces Sport how fiercely dedicated she is to her first love – and the reason she joined the military – music.  

Dyfan Pierce took over as the UK Armed Forces Men’s Head Coach in March 2020. It followed the team’s historic fourth successive Kentish Cup title, a three-way annual tournament between UK, French and Dutch Forces. It preceded, however, a global pandemic and lockdown which means, under his two-year tenure, the men have only played four matches. Dyfan talks to Forces Sport about the competitive summer ahead, the challenges he faces and his drive for the team to adopt the UKAF culture and ethos for success. 

UK Armed Forces and Army ladies’ tennis number one, Chloe Pike, has been chatting to Julian Evans about her passion for her sport. Injury threatened to bring a premature halt to her days playing and competing. But the Coronavirus pandemic meant she was able to go under the surgeon's knife to resolve a serious shoulder injury before making her Wimbledon debut last summer in the Inter Services Championships, where she helped the Army to success.  

In a post-Invictus Forces Sport podcast, Cath has chosen her favourite interview moments from The Hague 2022. First up, she speaks to Midge Hartley and Fester Hunt straight after Team UK’s defeat to Team USA in the Wheelchair Rugby – even though the Invictus Games is about more than medals, it certainly doesn’t take away from the competition. And then there’s Stuart Padley and his dad, Neil, who talk about the emotions involved in competing and spectating at the Games, as well as some Paralympic ambitions.

Dan Tasker wants to make his son proud. An injury to his wrist led to him being medically discharged from the Royal Air Force - a job and a lifestyle that he loved – and at his lowest point, he only saw himself as a broken man. But the Invictus programme changed things around and introduced him to new friends, new sports, and a new way of living. As he tells Forces Sport, he’s ready to compete and show his family how far he has come.

A technical glitch led to Sherry McBain’s application to compete at the Invictus Games successfully going through – so it was clearly written in the stars that this RAF Squadron Leader nurse should be on the bus for The Hague 2022. Speaking to Forces Sport’s Cath Brazier Sherry describes how she was at rock bottom and was diagnosed with PTSD – but she says her Invictus family have been a huge cog in her recovery journey, and she truly believes that she would have been medically discharged without them.